St. Paul daily globe., 1887-11-28
WHICH WAY?
Toward Heaven, or Toward the
Place That Is Dark.

At the Church of Christ Rev. W. ].
Shannon preached from the text Jer. l.,
;. He said:
This text is the beautiful setting of
some worthy lessons. Let us try TO
master them.
First-ZiOn was to that Hebrew peO-
pie an intense reality. 1t was the cita-
del of their city. the center of their ma
ton, the symbol of their home. AS the
long seventy years drew to close the
dim old eyes of the fathers and mothers
of Israel hungered to rest again on the
once familiar contour of the hills and
valleys of their native land; their
tongues to taste of its fruits and fatneSs
and their hearts TO worship in the city
of their fathers. Imagine son of Ben
jamin saying to his cousin of Judah:
Il wonder how the face of Mount Olivet
looks now, and whether the valley of
the Jordan is as green as 1t
used to be. The great olive Or
chardS, with their grand old trees
do they stand as they did when we
played there, and our little hands helped
our fathers get the berries? Do gardens
OF grapes still grow on the hillsideS, or
have the gentileS spoiled them all? We
know that our homes are gone and our
temple destroyed, but the spots where
they were are there, and for many years
we have turned our faces three times
day thitherward when we prayed. Let
us go, Judah, that we may at least point
out these sacred spots to our children,
that they may seek the old paths and
build the old waste places" So imag-
ine these old men rising up, though
their eyes were dim and their feet were
feeble, setting their faces toward Judea
and asking the way thither. To them, L
repeat it. Zion was reality. But what
of our Zion. of the heaven that Jesus
promises, of our immortal hope and our
eternal home-iS that not reality also?
You pay $1,000, $4,000 front foot for
property on NicOllet avenue. There is
not foot of property on NicOllet ave-
nue. that is more real than you are your
self: within YOU is something deathleSS,
to be either lost to God as your father,
or else redeemed by Christ as your
brother. Heaven is as real as earth,
and l wish that we could bring our
selves to invest therein as readily. Age
and death are but the prelude to re-
juyenation. For aught l know, before
YOU get my clay beneath the clOdS, God
has given me another body ''aS il pleaSeS
him. love to think of death as the
ferrvman that rows us over the river,
feeling confident that there is no river
but has two banks, and that both are
equally real. Our Zion is reality.
Second-Direction in life counts for
much. The inQuirers of our text had
their faces "thitherward," j. e., toward
their Zion. People do not usually walk
| backward. If your face is earthward
or heIlward YOU will not be found
stepping heavenward. There is a bent
to Your life that points like an index
finger to the want of your life. Man
sets his face in the direction of his de-
SireS. The magnet does not more read
iIy turn to the pole than you and turn
our faces toward what we want. A
yOnng man wants money faster than he
can earn it he sets his face towards the
gambling table, the pool rooms, and the
boards of trade. He will probably land
in Canada or the penitentiary before he
gets rich, for these are but stations a
| little farther on the road than he in
tended to go. We sometimes fOOlishly
set our faces in the direction of what
we want forgetting that there is also
something along that line that we do
! not want. Satan sets traps and decOyS
! and pitfalls and dead-fallS all along
| the broad way. Travelling that way
| YOU are liable at any moment to painful
| surprises. Along the highway of holi-
ness also God has placed many sur
/ prises, but they are of the pleasant sort.
The path of the just is as a shining
! light that shineth more and more until
the perfect day" ZiOn-ward, my
friends, heavenward, hOmeward, set
| YOUR faces thitherward. and then-why
| then the most natural thing for you to
do is to ask the way right earnestly.
Third-They asked the way whittier
| they wanted to 20. There is no head
| long and headstrOng rushing off at hap
| hazard, but patient and earnest inquiry.
! There is such thing as cOmmendable
caution, or let us call it care, as to how
we 90. Be sure you are right and then
90 ahead. Do you inquire the way right
| earnestly. really wanting 10 go thither:
Then ask of Christ and his apostles
| Take the New Testament as your guide
book. You Will need no other. Therein
you may always find the way to be a
Christian. and | think You will not find
the way therein to be anything else.
May the day soon come when the chill
dren of men, going and weeping, OF
going and laughing-lt is little matter
which-shall seek the Lord their God in
Christ. Are there any who have beer
like lost sheep. whose shepherds have
caused them TO go astray? who have
been turned away on the mountains
| who have gone from mountain TO hill
and WHO have forgotten their resting
place?